Adrenal Fatigue Checklist + Solutions
Adrenal fatigue, it’s a subject I spend a fair amount of time talking about.
Why?
Two reasons. One is because I know a lot of Americans deal with it. That’s just the truth in this day and age.
The second reason is because I believe once adrenal fatigue sets in there’s a negative and cascading effect on health. Adrenal fatigue has adverse effects on hormonal health and as you may know from reading my material (or from high school biology class) hormones are what regulate many of your body’s essential systems and processes.
If you suffer from adrenal fatigue it means your hormones have been assaulted by stress for a long time. And if that’s true, adrenal fatigue is really a symptom of a deeper problem.
There’s an Unexpected Problem With Treating Adrenal Fatigue
Now here’s the issue with adrenal fatigue.
Especially for people who aren’t able to visit an integrative or functional MD.
That issue is adrenal fatigue is not recognized as a disease.
Here’s what Harvard Health writes about adrenal fatigue.
“However, the Endocrinology Society and all the other medical specialties do not recognize this condition.
The Endocrinologists are categorical: “no scientific proof exists to support adrenal fatigue as a true medical condition.”
So does that mean adrenal fatigue is a made up disease?
In a way, yes.
This is because adrenal fatigue isn’t a “disease” because you are in control of your adrenal system and what happens to it. The same way being tired isn’t a disease… but something like Chronic Fatigue (an auto-immune condition) is.
That being true, adrenal fatigue can lead to poor health, so I think it’s something you should do your best to avoid.
Adrenal fatigue happens when your body’s adrenaline and cortisol levels become unbalanced..
Adrenaline is a hormone your body releases during stress to give you intense focus during stressful situations which means you can deal with them and move on accordingly.
Cortisol helps your body manage the physiological side effects of stressors.
Ideally, your body would only use adrenaline and cortisol in "emergency" situations - situations that would inspire the "fight or flight" response, or that force your body to focus intensely for a short amount of time.
The only problem is we've entered into a time in history where our bodies are under a constant state of stress. Unfortunately, this is unnatural and it's caused both our adrenaline and cortisol levels to stay elevated for much longer than what would be considered ideal.
Now that I’ve made that point, I’ll talk about some of the leading causes of adrenal fatigue and then offer you solutions to help make sure adrenal fatigue doesn’t bother you in the future.
3 Things You Do that Contribute To Adrenal Fatigue
Like I said, adrenal fatigue is not a disease.
There are things that we do, as normal people,that put a strain on our bodies and induce adrenal fatigue.
Here are a few of them.
1 - You drink too much coffee:
In this case when I say coffee, I really mean caffeine. In our world of go-go-go busyness we tend to rely on caffeine as a crutch to get us through the day.
Which is not a good idea.
It’s not that the caffeine is a problem, it’s what it does to you that’s a problem. When you drink caffeine in excess it can increase your heart rate which induces stress in the body. This means your body will pump extra cortisol out to deal with that stress so your cortisol levels will remain elevated for long periods of time.
Another thing that happens when you drink too much caffeine is it messes up your sleep cycle. I’ll be talking about sleep in just a second, but the point is if you rely too much on caffeine it means your sleep may suffer.
If you’re wondering what you can do to stay awake during the day without relying on caffeine there are two solutions. One, get more sleep, it’s the best way to stay off caffeine.
Two, you can also adopt a ketogenic diet and incorporate exercise into your daily regimen. Both of these combined together will help elevate your energy levels and help keep you away from a caffeine addiction.
2 - You’re not dealing with chronic stress:
Chronic stress is one of those things that is incredibly difficult to deal with and exacerbates adrenal fatigue.
It could be stress that comes from a family situation, a job, financial issues etc.
The important thing to know is stress contributes to adrenal fatigue. Now, just because it’s on this list, doesn’t mean you can eliminate it. However, there are ways to deal with stress better.
These include practicing deep breathing, adopting a spiritual practice, exercising consistently, eating a healthy diet (ketogenic/paleo/Whole 30 all help), going for daily walks outside in nature as well as taking adaptogenic herbs in supplement form.
Stress isn’t bad for us, necessarily, but if you’re under the gun all the time and don’t deal with stress it can have some unfortunate consequences.
3 - You’re not eating a healthy diet:
So many of the conditions that Americans deal with are directly related to diet.
Surprised?
Diet can induce adrenal fatigue in several different ways. It may cause inflammation, which is known to harm how your adrenal glands function.
It may lead to leaky gut, as well. Leaky gut is what happens when you eat foods that damage the lining of your intestines which allows for microscopic amounts of food into your bloodstream.
When food escapes into your bloodstream it poses a number of problems, namely that it “poisons” you and leads to an out of control immune response.
Your body will recognize that food as foreign invaders which need to be purged from your body.
And so it will mount an attack on the leaked food and try and kill it.
This creates a massive amount of stress on your body. Imagine, at the cellular level your body believes it is under attack.
How could it not be stressed?
And that stress, leads to the release of high amounts of adrenaline and cortisol being released.
If you’re always eating poorly and you never heal your gut it means your adrenals can easily be overworked which as you now know may cause future health concerns.
Here’s What I Recommend To Combat Adrenal Fatigue
I hope it’s pretty obvious, if you’d like to keep your adrenals healthy and keep adrenaline and cortisol levels healthy, you should eat healthy, lay off the caffeine as well as moderate how you handle stress.
However, I know it’s not always possible to accomplish this.
Everyone’s circumstances are different, so that’s why I also advise taking a blend of adaptogenic herbs to help support your adrenals.
Like the herbs found in Adrenal Syn3rgy, which is our newest product I made that helps protect your adrenals
I’ve written articles on each of these herbs before, but let me summarize for you here:
1 - Ashwagandha:
Ashwagandha is a type of ginseng and for the past few thousand years it’s been a go-to herb for helping support responses to stress. The ancient people who used it had no idea how it worked, but now we know ashwagandha may help to modulate hormone levels, balance blood sugar and even influence neurotransmitter function.
2 - Holy Basil:
Holy basil contains two compounds which have been shown to combat the negative effects of temporary stress and adrenal fatigue. Holy basil is believed to help keep cortisol levels balanced. The expectation is holy basil acts as an adaptogen (a substance believed to help protect cells at the cellular level), and this adaptogenic effect prevents your body from going overboard on producing too much cortisol.
3 - Rhodiola Extract (fights stress and fatigue):
The exact way that Rhodiola is able to help the body is beginning to be understood more and more. In terms of antioxidant power, it was found in testing that a compound contained in rhodiola rosea called salidroside was able to protect skin cells from succumbing to oxidative stress. Another way that Rhodiola helps the body is by way of affecting how the adrenal system reacts to stress.
This is a brand new product for us, but already patients are getting massive results.
Check out this testimonial for Adrenal Syn3rgy.
Great combination
Adrenal Synergy is the first product that has made a positive impact with long term adrenal insufficiency. I’m now able to exercise without having to rest for hours afterward. Best yet, I’ve lost a few pounds
Want to try it for yourself?
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